Finger-Mounted Tactile Sensor for Evaluating Surfaces

Abstract

This paper presents a finger-mounted tactile sensor for extracting information on fine surface properties of objects such as textile fabrics. The prototype sensor has a thin structure composed of a sheet of PVDF (Polyvinylidene Fluoride) film sensor and some metal parts for converting compressive forces into area expansion of the PVDF film. By using a signal processing program based on FFT (fast Fourier transform), voltage signal sequences from nine different fabrics were distinguished, in spite of the variation in the pressing force and the speed of rubbing motion induced by the fluctuation of the user's hand motion. In addition, the signal sequences from abraded fabrics were sorted in the order of the level of abrasion, by extracting a signal component correlated with the abrasion level.